


Merlin is Captured, Kind Of

by Emmalie22



Series: Merlin Holmes [7]
Category: Merlin (TV), Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Arthur Finds Out, BAMF Merlin, Druids, John-centric, Merlin is a Little Shit, Merlin is captured, POV John Watson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 18:51:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8726230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmalie22/pseuds/Emmalie22
Summary: The one in which this is modern day and Merlin is captured for being an assassin. Sherlock Holmes, his older brother, is devastated. The seventh in a series.





	

Merlin was arrested and Sherlock acted as if nothing in the world was wrong. John, on the other hand, was freaking out.

"Sherlock," John's voice was uneasy. "Your brothers been arrested. As in put in jail. As in going to trial for murder."

"Hmm," Sherlock didn't look up, "I know."

"You know! That's all you're going to say!" John exploded. It was all over the news, PRINCE'S ASSISTANT RELIEVED TO BE ASSASSIN and MERLIN HOLMES LEADS TERRORIST GROUP.

"Well," Sherlock shrugged, "it's not like he's not guilty of what they're accusing him of. He'll be in jail until things quiet down and then Mycroft will quietly offer him a deal in return for his services. Don't overreact John."

"Oh," John's voice became sarcastic, "I'm overreacting?"

"Yes John, very much so," Sherlock rolled his eyes at him. John's eyes on the other hand narrowed.

Sherlock could sense the tension in the room and John's impending blow up and decided to do the smart thing. He said, "John, we can talk about this later. We have a crime scene to attend to."

So business went on as usual, or as usual as it could when one's best friend's younger brother had been accused of killing countless people. They showed up at the crime scene, and John already wanted to leave.

Why he continued to put up with Sherlock despite the constant headache it gave him was the ultimate mystery of life. His so called best friend acted if nothing had happened.

John had grown quite attached to Merlin, and although he knew the boy could look after himself, John was still worried. He wondered what the Prince was planning on doing about the situation.

Of course as much as Sherlock wanted to leave the situation alone, their co-workers were gossiping like teenage girls. They arrived on the crime scene to have every single person stare in their direction. It was a dark pub that had spilled beer all around the floor. The TVs had yet to be turned off and were showing a commercial about men's body wash.

Anderson was the first to speak up. "First one in your family to fall, eh? I wonder when you'll be next."

Sherlock looked at the man and blinked at him dully, as if he had said nothing.

Sally spoke up next, of course: "Nothing to say to that? Your brother is more of a freak than you are."

Sherlock finally showed some emotion about the situation. "Don't call my brother a freak. Ever. Call me it all you want, but Merlin is the best person I know bar John."

"Of course you would call an assassin the best person you know," Anderson sneered.

"Leave Sherlock alone," Lestrade sighed, "his brother just got arrested. Have some decency."

"Like they ever do," Sherlock muttered.

Sherlock moved around the body as if to get a better sense of what when down the night prior. The TVs flashed with the sound of breaking news. The entire inhabitants of the bar eyes' moved to the screen magnetically.

Merlin was on the TV next to the King. He was in handcuffs. Another man stood off to the left of the King and Sherlock's brother and on the right stood Arthur looking quite frazzled.

In fact, the only person who didn't look concerned or sober was Merlin who still had his dorky grin on his face. His ears stuck out widely as if they were far too large for his head and his hair stood up as if it hadn't been washed for days. He looked adorable and harmless.

"Turn on the sound," someone in the room shouted.

John agreed and then the sound faded in as the someone used the remote to turn it up. The dead body laid behind them on the floor as all the officers and consultants watched the "breaking news."

The King's voice floated into the bar. "... with the help of Aredian we were able to discover a number of undercover operatives involved in nefarious terrorist organizations posing in the palace in minor jobs. We believe there goals were large scale mass murder and my son was a key target. That is why I would like to make an example of these terrorist. The one standing besides paraded as my son's assistant while plotting his death. As an imperial order I am choosing to reinstate the death penalty for treason. My advisor, Aredian, and I are going to be more proactive in finding and prosecuting these dangerous individuals."

The absolute shock on Arthur's face mirrored John's feelings.

Sherlock actually gasped besides John and John himself could barely breath.

Sherlock turned to Lestrade as snapped sharply, "I think you can deal with this one on your own. Come along John."

The Captain nodded at them, and John and Sherlock scuffled out of the bar.

The dead corpse still lay behind them as they leave and John took one look at it thinking about Merlin lying there instead. He could not imagine it.

"They cannot murder my brother!" Sherlock boomed. "I will not allow it."

John swallowed heavily.

"Where is Mycroft and why is he allowing this to happen?"

John shook his head. He did not know and was asking the same questions himself.

By the time they got back to Sherlock's apartment, Mrs. Hudson was out front to meet them.

"Sherlock, my word! I saw the news. This is terrible. The poor boy always seemed to sweet and innocent, but they always do." She wrung her hands nervously.

"Are you going to prove him innocent?" She asked, but there was a glint in her eye that meant are you going to get him out, not prove him innocent.

"He's not innocent." Sherlock muttered, "But I'm going to prove it anyways."

They came into the apartment and Mycroft sat there looking stunned. Sherlock automatically attacked him with words. "How could you let this happen? How did this happen? Why aren't you doing anything?"

"Calm down dear brother. We can't plan if we're this high strung." Mycroft grit his teeth as if he was asking himself the same questions.

Sherlock glared at him. "You have no plan, don't you?"

Mycroft's expression dropped and he looked old and tired. "I have no idea how this happened. Merlin, for all intensive purposes, should have seen this coming. I should have seen this coming. But I didn't. This Aredian is a wild card."

"Who is he?" John asked.

"Someone from Homeland. They call him the witchfinder. He smells out foreign and terrorist operatives as if there was a giant arrow above them. He's getting close to his majesty. I dislike it altogether."

"Then why haven't you done something about it?" Sherlock questioned harshly.

Mycroft looked like he was about to bark at Sherlock, but then suddenly sat down as if there was a giant weight upon him.

"I didn't know until it was too late." John felt the dread settle in his stomach. That night Mary and him didn't talk much. He only held her tighter as they slept.

The next morning when John came to the apartment he turned on the news despite knowing that it would be nothing good. He sat there still watching while Sherlock was asleep in the chair next to him. He looked as if he had spent the night researching something.

John left him asleep. He would wake him up in a bit so they could figure out whatever asinine plan Sherlock had.

The news was surprising to John however. The morning show was on and John watched the two commentators talk about Merlin.

The guy said: "Can you believe it? This kid looks like he could be blown over by a leaf mower. They are accusing him of being a leader of a terrorist organization.

The woman laughed falsely: "Not not really! I mean, look at those ears. If they told me that he was sent because he could through walls maybe I would believe them.

The guy replied: So, to you all, what we have so far is that his name is Merlin Holmes. He is nineteen. Majoring in history of all things at Oxford. He made friends with the Prince at college and became his assistant. You may have heard of his older brother, Sherlock Holmes.

The women added on: "This family seems to make it's way into trouble. I'm sure the older Holmes is doing his best to clear his brother."

John couldn't watch this falsely cheery program anymore. He turned it off.

As he rubbed his face, he felt as if he had gained a couple of years. Sherlock started awake.

"John!" He reprimanded. "Why did you not wake me up? We have work to do."

"I know Sherlock." Sherlock then started to ramble about where they would be holding his brother. How the cells worked. Who would be guarding them. And all over how to break into them. John knew that these plans were treasonous, but honestly, he didn't give a bloody fuck.

After a couple of hours had passed, there was heavy pounding on the door. John went and opened it to the red face of Mrs. Hudson.

"Did you hear the news!" she exclaimed.

"What?" John asked startled and frightful.

"Merlin has been cleared! Turn on BCC. There's been a email leak on wikileaks. It shows that Aredian, the adviser guy to the king, has been planting evidence. Merlin was innocent all along."

John didn't know about innocent all along but he was both startled and beyond thrilled.

"Sherlock, turn on the news!" He rushed into the front room.

"John," Sherlock scolded, "I do not want to hear more news about how my brother is going to be executed."

"No, turn it on," he insisted.

Sherlock sighed and pressed the on button. It showed a breaking news banner at the bottom of the screen. The newscasters were talking about it at that moment.

"- can't even believe it. That there would be a conspiracy of this magnitude. I'm so glad that this go outed when it did."

"I mean, I can't even imagine. That poor boy, thinking he was going to die." They flashed Merlin's face on the screen.

Then the other newscaster continued, "Let's just let Merlin live in peace and how that we can apologize for the-" he paused for a second. "Breaking news. The King is making an announcement about recent events."

The screen flashed to the Royal Place. King Uther stood before many reporters and Merlin and Arthur stood at his side.

"I would like to inform the public of the complete betrayal that has happened. Aredian was setting up people to take the fall for him. That only confirms that we must take vigilance with matters…" The speech went on as such.

Sherlock besides him was glued intently to the video. "Do you think Mycroft did that?" Sherlock asked. John shrugged. He had no clue.

All he knew was that Sherlock and he had such a sense of relief that he didn't care who leaked the emails, only thrilled that they did.

Later that day Merlin sat on Sherlock's couch. Sherlock flittered around him making sure he was okay. Arthur sat besides him with Gwaine standing at the door looking upon the scene with amusement.

Mrs. Hudson dotted on him saying, "Here take another cookie you poor boy."

Merlin did with little dignity, grinning the entire time. Watching all the commotion, John realized something. Merlin had planned this. He had planned to get captured and cleared. He wanted to be cleared of a charge he was in reality guilty of. Because no one would believe it now. Most likely Merlin had planned it all in advance and had one of his men leak them right when it needed.

There were already websites devoted to Merlin and Arthur shipping. The hashtag #Merthur was trending on twitter. All across the web people were proclaiming that Merlin was too cute to be a deadly assassin. Anyone who suggested it now would be called crazy and laughed at.

Merlin caught John staring at him and winked at him. John started laughing.


End file.
